Emptyset is the innovative electronic duo of James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas.
The duo composes within a complex set of self-imposed parameters or rule sets
and the results of their expeditions on Borders are at once minimal and
visceral. Focusing on shifting timbral changes over melody, Emptyset s work is
an exploration of the relationship between rhythm, texture and space. The pair
shares a history in Bristol s underground music scene as well as an impressive
list of production credits. Ginzburg, now Berlin based, runs a network of record
labels including electronic music label Subtext and Arc Light Editions, whose
reissues include a work by Arthur Russell. He s a prolifi producer and remixer
for both independent and major labels, with diverse projects such as Faint Wild
Light, Ginz and more recently Bleed Turquoise. Purgas, now based in London,
founded the We Elude Control label in 2009, a curated collection of rare
experimental music. Purgas is an artist, writer and curator who has presented
projects with Tate, Whitechapel and Serpentine Galleries, and he is also an
active promoter of electronic music in eclectic spaces from a carpark to a
Modernist pavilion. Each project s framework and parameters dictate how the
sound or performance evolves. In the past, Emptyset have explored the ways in
which the sonic and spatial interact within different architectural contexts:
often site-specifi locations such as the decommissioned Trawsfynydd nuclear
power station in North Wales, or the neo-gothic Woodchester Mansion. Borders
takes a different approach, centering around the performative and the performer.
Having each created their own tactile instruments, a six-stringed zither-like
instrument and a drum, Emptyset focuses on how organic sounds interact with the
analogue processes that have defied their work to date. Contrasting typical
approaches to making electronic music, Emptyset set out to emphasize live
performance rather than creating sequences within devices. While Purgas and
Ginzburg utilize vintage analogue electronics, compressing and distorting the
signals, the album itself is performed entirely live, where subtle movements
make for substantial changes in sound.
From the very fist track, Body, one can hear how the physicality of the
instruments have imbued the sound s texture. The physical characteristics of
the metal strings create a layer of dynamic juxtaposition to the grinding
timbres emerging around them. The broody Ascent, features the album s clearest
call-and-response between the stringed instrument and the drum, barking and
thudding back and forth at one another. Evident in tracks such as Border
and Speak, Emptyset uses basic rhythmic structures drawn from an array of broad
cultural practices, expressed neutrally and without overemphasis on the source.
Taken as a whole Borders distills the duo s inspirations to their essence and
the resulting music is as raw as it is captivating.